Falling Into Those Ocean Eyes
by sunshinearmin
Summary: For day one of AruAni week on tumblr. The prompt was Eyes


**Falling Into Those Ocean Eyes**

Annie could tell anyone the first thing she fell in love with. His eyes. Deep pools of blue. He had been rather unnoticeable before. A background piece. An accessory in the life of Eren Jaeger. His name wasn't even worth learning, he was so insignificant to her. Then one day, he looked at her with those eyes, and she was gone.

Armin Arlert. She had to learn everything about him after that. So, she began to watch him. He was small, and weak. During PT, he lagged behind most of the squadron. He was average with the 3DM gear. He was always last to finish their laps. His friends didn't even seem to notice that they were leaving him in the dust. Why did he even want to be a soldier? He was certain to be titan food. And yet he kept going. Kept surviving. She had to admire his persistence, his commitment.

He had something the rest of these idiots didn't. He knew what he was getting into. He had seen titans before. He knew what they were capable of. In comparison to Eren and Mikasa, everyone seemed to forget that he was in Shiganshina that day too. Had watched his home and people he knew wiped out. And yet he kept plowing on through training. He was braver than most of these people gave him credit for. He had something he believed in, something he was willing to fight for. Something he was willing to die for. As a warrior, she could respect that. She had something too. But he didn't seem to have any discernable skills. Ideals would only get you so far.

Then, she started sitting behind him in the classroom. The little guy was a genius, and she wasn't exaggerating. He had a strategic mind, and an ability to think outside the box. He was receiving top marks. He was miles beyond Jaeger and Ackerman in this area. He was probably the smartest kid in the squadron. The one they SHOULD look to when out on the battfield. They wouldn't, of course, with so many other louder personalities. Eren Jaeger, Jean Kirschstein, hell, even Reiner.

But Armin was a quiet boy, and often overlooked. He seemed shy, and lacked confidence in himself. That might get him killed. The first few months of training, he hardly spoke to anyone. And he was always with Jaeger and Ackerman. Annie appreciated his more reserved personality. Most of them were loud, and boisterous, and grated on her nerves. But she often overheard Eren talking about things Armin said. Apparently, he was quite talkative, but only around certain people. Sort of like Bertolt then.

But after a long while, she knew she had to stop. He was the enemy. All of these people were. They stood between her and her ability to go home. But the people of Paradis Island were different than she had been lead to believe. They didn't know anything about the world outside of their walls. They didn't know how they or the titans got there. They didn't even know what was in the walls. These people even had a religion dedicated to the walls, and keeping them intact. Most of the people wanted to remain within their walls. There were arguments to seal up the walls entirely. They weren't the devils Marley had told her they were. She wasn't sure they deserved to die. Certainly not by titans. Then again, she had never been devoted to the cause like Reiner was. This was merely her way to get home. To get back to a semi normal life. All she had to do was find the original titan, and maybe the attack titan, and bring it back to Marley. It wouldn't hurt to find the jaw titan either.

But avoiding attachments was proving to be harder than she thought. In Marley, she'd been so focused on being selected as a warrior, she hadn't paid any attention to the other candidates, even after being selected. It just became a habit, especially since most of them had personalities that she didn't gel with. Porco, Reiner, Zeke. Bertolt was okay, mostly, as was Pieck. Marcel had been alright, but he was dead now. She kept telling herself that these people would be too, and she shouldn't let them in. But it was hard.

There was Mina Carolina. A sweet girl with dark hair she always wore in pigtails. Mina was Annie's bunkmate. Annie didn't mean to get close to her, but it seemed inevitable. There was Eren Jaeger, who was actually interested in learning how to fight from her. Marco Bott was a sweet boy with freckles who was encouraging to everyone. Christa, Ymir, Sasha, all fairly bearable girls.

And then there was HIM. She had tried her best to avoid him, but one day, they were paired together on the stable duty. She ignored him at first, and thankfully he seemed to get the hint. He was on the other side of the stable, cleaning out those stalls. All of the horses had been turned out in the paddock, so it was quiet, except for the scraping of their shoulders.

Annie wondered what the hell she was doing. He was insignificant. He meant nothing to her. So, why was she acting like he did? She was acting stupid. People were bound to notice her avoidance of him and be more suspicious of that than if she'd just talk to him. Treat him like she treated everyone else. Suddenly, there was a cough behind her, and she spun around.

He was standing right behind her. "Sorry." He said, looking down at the ground. His long blonde hair hung over his face. She could see why everyone said he looked like Christa. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"How long have you been standing there?"

"About ten seconds."

"What do you want?" She realized she sounded pissy.

He didn't seem perturbed by her tone. "Nothing. I didn't come over here to talk to you." Well, little Armin had a bit of a backbone after all. She guessed that came from being friends with Eren and Mikasa. She had to admit, it was interesting to see what his personality was like without his constant companions around.

"Then what are you doing over here?"

"I finished my stalls."

"Already?" Annie gaze shot over to the stalls he had and sure enough, his were all emptied out.

"Yeah. I was going to get hay for mine, but I can help you finish your's, if you'd like."

She was going to tell him no, but then she thought about it. He was much faster than her, so they'd get done twice as fast. "Sure." She finally said.

"Okay." He turned and walked into the stall across from the one she was in.

Annie realized he hadn't looked up the entire time they were talking. She liked his voice. It was light and melodic, so unlike most of the other guys' voices. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Annie was sure it wasn't. He came across as the kind of person who liked to help people, however he could.

Annie finished the stall she was working in, and paused to watch him for a moment. He really worked at a breakneck speed. She hadn't expected it out of the kid who lagged behind everyone else. She turned away quickly as he finished and hurried into her next stall. After a few more minutes, she asked, "So, how long have you known Eren?"

He looked up at her then, and she fell into those eyes all over again. How could one pair of eyes hold so much emotion? Annie's own hardly ever showed emotion. She'd been told she looked rather dead eyed. His currently showed surprise and confusion. Annie was not the kind of person who came across as liking small talk, or was interested in other people's lives. "Since I was little." He finally answered. "Actually, I knew his parents before he even did." He smiled at her, and she felt the last of her resistance towards him melt away.

"How does that work?" She asked.

"His dad delivered me." Armin replied. "And then, four months later, he was born."

"Wait, you're older than Eren?"

"Mikasa too. People think because I'm smaller, I must be younger, but actually, Eren is the youngest.

Annie stared at him. "Wow. So you guys were friends since birth?"

"No. Eren's dad was my doctor, but we didn't really become friends until we were about six. And we met Mikasa when we were nine." She could see how Eren was constantly repeating stuff Armin said. He was quite the chatterbox. You just had to get him going. She wanted to hear more of his voice.

"So, how did you guys become friends then?"

He paused for a moment, looking at her skeptically. "Why are you so interested all of a sudden?"

She had to think fast to get out of this one. It wasn't like she had a rational answer, after all. She couldn't just tell him that she wanted to hear his voice. That was weird. "Because…because I never had a friendship like you guys, and I'm curious, is all. I've always been a loner." It wasn't even technically a lie.

He seemed to accept her answer as his posture relaxed and his face regained an easy going expression. "Oh, well that's sort of a long story."

Annie looked over the other stalls they still had to do. "I think we have time."

"Well, okay…" Annie wasn't actually listening to his words anymore. She was more listening to the cadence of his words, like a melody. As they finished the stalls, she kept glancing over at him. He was animated, and there was just something about him. A presence or an aura or something. She could feel his joy radiating off him as he spoke about his best friend. It was such a pure thing. Too pure. Annie almost felt too dirty to be around something so pure.

She propped her elbow on the door of the last stall and just watched him. He was very pretty, now that she looked at him closely. Prettier than her. Prettier than most of the girls here. He had a nice round face, a little button nose, sunny yellow hair. But his most enticing feature was his eyes. A bright, crystalline blue that shone with emotion. It was like he held the world in those eyes. He caught her gaze and stopped talking. "What?"

"What? Nothing." She answered, straightening up.

"Um…okay. We should get some fresh hay for the stalls." He said, walking down the center aisle towards where they hay was kept.

"Yeah, right." She quickly hurried after him.

As she lay in her bed that night, listening to the sounds of the other girls sleeping, all she could think about were those damn eyes. It wasn't fair. Of all the things that should be on her mind, why was it him? What was it about those eyes that had drawn her in?

Oceans. That's what they were like. His eyes reminded her of the ocean she had crossed to get here. Fathomlessly deep and mysterious. Teeming with life, and danger, and beauty. She realized she had fallen into those ocean eyes, and she was drowning in them. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to be saved. Instead, in that moment as she lay in the dark, she decided she wanted those eyes in her life, no matter what the cost was.

That decision, mostly forgotten, was probably the reason why, years later, she didn't crush him. In her chase to get Eren, she'd taken out much of the Survey Corps. Her hands were irreparably stained with blood, and she didn't even care. But then, she lifted that hood and looked into those eyes, and she let him go. She couldn't see those eyes lifeless, and certainly would not be the one to take the life from those eyes.

But the stubborn little bastard didn't learn, and came back. She felt her temper flare. How could someone so smart behave so stupidly? She'd spared his life once, she wouldn't do it again. But as Annie crouched over his bloody body, he looked up at her, and she couldn't do it. That ocean stared into her soul, and she stopped her hand.

And even later, after everything, she knew she should regret staying her hand, but she just couldn't. Locked in a prison of her own making, unable to keep her promise to her father, unable to go home, all she had were those eyes. Full of promise and expectations. The oceans had swallowed her whole, and they were all she had left.


End file.
